I've seen/met him a number of times over the years now, but the first (and still most memorable, I think) was way back in 03 at a screening of Punch-Drunk Love. I was 15, it was Rochester, George Eastman House at the Dryden Theater. My dad, after having told me he couldn't take me, skipped out on work at the last minute, zoomed home and picked me up (totally by surprise) and we floored it 4 hours north, walking into a packed house during the first date scene with Lena, and we stood in the back until the credits. The whole time I was scanning the audience for PTA, couldn't spot him, eventually gave up and just watched the film. As the credits rolled, I looked to my right and saw the man himself wander in, clothes wrinkled as can be (my dad was not impressed, expecting something more along the lines of an older Spielberg or Kubrick-type figure, I guess), and just stood, leaning against the back wall, just a few feet away. I mustered up every last ounce of courage I had, went over and tapped him on the shoulder. He smiled and said, "Hi." I proceeded to vomit out a garbled, half-choked series of words that somehow effectively communicated that I was a huge fan and wanted him to sign my dvd. He smiled and said, "Of course," and gave me a personalized autograph with three scribbled hearts surrounding Barry Egan's profile. And then he took the stage for a Q and A (the most memorable part being when an older lady asked him what in hell the frogs at the end of Magnolia meant...he proceeded to give her a hesitant yet cordial answer, followed by a brief pause, a wide, mischievous grin spreading, then, "And I hope that answers your fucking frog question.") This was also around the time he was just starting to write what became There Will Be Blood, which he described to us merely as, "An adventure film." I believe a few other Xixaxers, currently active or not, might have been there that night. Anyone?

EDIT: I remember now! An old member named ebeaman (with whom I struck up a nice online friendship around that time) was there, I think, and I believe there was a member named Antidumbfrogquestion whose name is obviously a direct reference to PTA's thoroughly charming retort referenced above.

Also Philip Seymour Hoffman's Mom was there

"Do you laugh at jealousy?"

"No, I don't even laugh at seasickness! I happen to regard jealousy as the seasickness of passion."

I haven't looked yet, but is there a place here where we've shared how we each came to first stand in the warmth of the PTA sun? (I don't mean having met him, but fallen for his creative charms.) Cuz I'd love read those as well.